Results for "AAJ Staff"

Five Guitarists With the Blues

September 17, 2020

By 1971, my family had moved out of Manhattan for the northern reaches of Westchester County. I wasn't happy about being there, but it was better than dealing with overcrowded classrooms in the city and muggings in school stairways. Craving the city at 15, I started taking the train into New York to spend hours at ...

B.B. King at Sing Sing, 1973

September 16, 2020

René Thomas: Rare and New

September 15, 2020

Born in Liège, Belgium, guitarist René Thomas moved to Paris in the early 1950s and became part of the active jazz scene there. Paris back then was similar to 52nd Street in New York, where musicians could engage in steady gigging with leading musicians from Europe and from America. What most of the European jazz musicians ...

Neil Swainson: 49th Parallel

September 14, 2020

In 1987, Neil Swainson wanted to record six original compositions. At the time, the Canadian bassist was playing Toronto jazz clubs with Canadian drummer Jerry Fuller and pianist Gary Williamson. When Woody Shaw came to town earlier that year, the trio backed him. Swainson also played with the trumpeter a couple of years earlier and recorded ...

Jazz Doc: Stéphane Grappelli

September 10, 2020

European jazz starts with Stéphane Grappelli and the Hot Club of France Quintet. The violinist along with guitarist Django Reinhardt added Louis Vola on bass and Joseph Reinhardt and Roger Chaput on guitar. The group ended its run in 1939 with the onset of World War II. Grappelli was in London when war broke out and ...

Miles: Ascenseur pour l'échafaud

September 8, 2020

Known in English as Elevator to the Gallows, this 1958 French crime film is notable for three reasons: The movie, directed by Louis Malle, launched French new wave cinema. It stars Jeanne Moreau, one of France's finest actresses and a personal favorite. And best of all, Miles Davis improvises throughout. In a nutshell, the film is ...

Sonny Rollins at 90

September 7, 2020

Today is Sonny Rollins's 90th birthday. I never talk to Sonny on his birthday. I know how he feels about this day. It brings too much attention to him, and Sonny is happiest off the grid. But that doesn't mean I cant write about him. My bond with Sonny goes back to to an afternoon we ...

Jazz 625: British Jazz

September 4, 2020

Between April 1964 and August 1966, BBC2 in the U.K. aired an hour-long TV show called Jazz 625. It was broadcast on 625-lines UHF rather than the 405-lines VHF system then used by the other channels. This allowed for a better signal at home. What was particularly noteworthy about the show is that it began airing ...

Lester Young on Verve

September 2, 2020

Lester Young was born on August 27, 1909 and died March 15, 1959. Known as Prez or Pres (short for President, a nickname Billie Holiday gave him), the tenor saxophonist was famous for his cool and airy relaxed style that modernized the tenor saxophone. Instead of improvising with an aggressive, vertical chopping approach, his sound was ...

Britain Plays the Blues

September 1, 2020

How did all those British rock bands learn to play the blues in the 1960s and why were they so fascinated by the form? What was the unlikely impact of the Yardbirds, the Animals, the Rolling Stones, Manfred Mann, John Mayall, Cream and other British bands introducing white audiences to the blues in the U.S.? Most ...